Howards-solicitors

Howards is niche law firm based in the North West, specialising in criminal defence, family law & personal injury law.

[CrimeLineJobs @JobsCrime]

Check out the latest criminal law vacancies: https://t.co/0iYYM1MZR8

[CrimeLineJobs @JobsCrime]

Duty Solicitor: Greater Manchester & Cheshire https://t.co/0iYYM1MZR8

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

Check out the opportunities available:

https://t.co/IWEkD106H7

We also have a X feed for vacancies: @jobscrime

[Howards-solicitors @howardssols]

@CrimeLineLaw This is wider implications,makes me think of police officers who fail, not only to de-escalate a situation but to inflame it.

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

A barrister and part-time immigration tribunal judge has been found guilty of defrauding the Legal Aid Agency, along with other lawyers, by falsely claiming defence legal costs.

Rasib Ghaffar, 54, conspired to inflate legal fees and work claimed for in 2011 and 2012 together with Gazi Khan, 55, legal clerk; Azar Khan, 52, solicitor advocate; and Joseph Kyeremeh, 73, solicitor.

This prosecution follows a substantial police investigation into fraudulent claims for Defendants’ Costs Orders submitted to the Legal Aid Agency National Taxing Team on behalf of acquitted defendants in criminal proceedings in Crown Courts. Defendants who pay their own legal costs can claim some of this back from the taxpayer after they are acquitted. This is called a Defendant’s Costs Order (DCO).

In this case, defendants instructed solicitors and counsel to represent them privately in criminal proceedings and, following their acquittals, successfully applied to the courts for DCOs. These orders enabled their instructed solicitors to claim payments of their own costs and disbursements (which included counsel’s agreed fees) from central government funds.

The evidence in this case focussed on four claims, arising from the legal costs of four defendants who were acquitted.  These defendants were then able to apply for the legal costs of their defence to be paid by the taxpayer. These four claims totalled £1,856,584, of which £469,477 (25%) was paid out.

Gazi Khan, the leader in this criminal operation worked as a clerk to Shadid Rashid, providing legal costs services to several solicitor firms. He has now been convicted of fraud offences relating to fraudulent defence cost orders.

Azar Khan was the principal partner in City Law Solicitors Ltd and according to evidence gathered by the prosecution, the firm started work on the case resulting in the claims on 1 July 2011, about 10 weeks before it concluded, yet claimed to have carried out over 500 hours work, costing over £162,000. The firm’s claim also falsely backdated the work it had said it had done to include a long period when it was not instructed to represent any defendant, resulting in a payment of £93,000 from the taxpayer.

Joseph Kyeremeh was a principal partner in the same law firm. His legal work resulted in a claimed relating to 650 hours work, at a value of over £176,000, with £60,000 coming from public funds.

The defendant in this trial, Ghaffar, was responsible for a fee note in his name for £184,000, relating to over 350 hours of work – yet the evidence shows he had only been instructed seven days before the conclusion of the case.

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

Law Society High Court victory: Government must rethink criminal legal aid funding before system collapses

The Law Society has urged the Lord Chancellor to safeguard the future of criminal legal aid following today’s victory in the High Court.

The Society took the government to court after it failed to increase criminal defence solicitors’ legal aid rates by the bare minimum 15%, as recommended by the independent review of criminal legal aid.

Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Jay today (31 January) ruled that the decisions on CLAIR were irrational and that the Lord Chancellor made insufficient enquiries as to the state of the criminal legal aid sector before making them.

The Court observed that it had been presented with an “impressive, compelling, body of evidence” which showed “the system is slowly coming apart at the seams”. “Unless there are significant injections of funding in the relatively near future, any prediction along the lines that the system will arrive in due course at a point of collapse is not overly pessimistic.”

“We are delighted the High Court has recognised that then Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab’s decision was irrational,” said Law Society of England and Wales president Nick Emmerson.

“We may have won the court battle but it’s the public who will lose out in custody suites and courtrooms across the country unless the government takes immediate action to stop the exodus of duty solicitors from the profession.

1,400 duty solicitors have left since 2017 because the work is not financially viable.

We are already seeing that there simply aren’t enough solicitors to represent suspects at police stations and magistrates’ courts day and night across the country. This situation will only get worse with potentially dangerous consequences for society.

The imbalance between the defence and the prosecution will continue to grow and public trust in the criminal justice system will continue to fail.”

The Law Society now wants the government to ensure that the key recommendation of the independent review – a 15% legal aid rates’ rise – is implemented for solicitors as soon as possible. They must also commit to ensuring that criminal legal aid rates become and remain economically viable in the long term.

“It must be remembered that Lord Bellamy made that recommendation more than two years ago and said it was the bare minimum needed,” added Nick Emmerson.

“Reversing Raab’s irrational decision would be an important step to demonstrate the government is serious about ensuring that we may once again have a criminal justice system worthy of the name. A system which works effectively and efficiently needs to attract and retain lawyers on both sides to ensure balance between defence and prosecution.

We are keen to work with the Lord Chancellor to help take the necessary steps to safeguard the future of this crucial profession.”

[Howards-solicitors @howardssols]

@CrimeLineLaw But defence barristers are still refusing these cases

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

From this month, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will be increasing the fee they pay for a Section 28 matter to £1,000, matching the fee increase on the defence side. The changes have been published in the CPS Fees Bulletins No.1 of 2024 – Graduated Fee Scheme – Section 28 Fee. This bulletin, effective from Monday 15 January 2024, confirms that the fixed fee payable in Section 28 cases will increase.

https://t.co/0afTZK1bp8

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

A truly shocking statistic. I have never heard these figures before, and I don’t know why not. It’s been troubling me all day, and it should trouble every person involved not just in criminal justice, which is late to the issue, but wider society - how do we make this better?

[Drive Forward @Drive_Forward]

Exciting news! Drive Forward's #CareExperienced Policy Forum, in partnership with youth justice experts, has crafted a valuable guide for lawyers representing care-experienced young individuals. ⚖️ #DareToCare

@YJLCUK @gardencourtlaw @T2AAlliance @BarrowCadbury @mediate_kate

[Sima Kotecha @sima_kotecha]

EXC #Newsnight FOI data from MoJ:
*At least 150 ppl have been held on remand awaiting trial for 5 yrs or longer.
*110 ppl have been held for btw 3 & 5 yrs.
*65 have been held btw 3 & 4 years.
*45 held btw 4 & 5 yrs.
@TheCriminalBar puts it down to court-backlogs.

[CrimeLine @CrimeLineLaw]

Section 1 Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 placed restrictions on two types of dog, namely the Pit Bull Terrier and Japanese tosa. In August 1991, the government added, by way of a statutory instrument, two further dog types: Dogo Argentino and Fila Braziliero. In theory, therefore, the government can seek, quite quickly, to add XL Bully to that list.

But, in order to place a dog on that list, you have to be able to identify it with sufficient clarity. So, can we easily put XL Bully into a breed class? Well, herein lies the problem. XL Bully is not a recognised breed and due to the amount of cross-breeding, recognition by DNA does not offer sufficient clarity as the profile is shared by a large number of other dog types. So, the first problem is putting together a list of characteristics that match the XL Bully and are not identical to other dogs that the government has no wish to ban. Experts have opined in the media today that this will be possible, but it will be a slow process and lead to inevitable legal challenges if the government gets it wrong.

Almost all imports of XL Bully come from the USA, but closing down one import channel is itself problematic in free trade terms and also imprecise as indirect imports are almost impossible to identify without having in place a complex and expensive regulatory regime that would require the cooperation of other nations. It would not be quick and is almost certain to fail.

There are few fans of the 1991 Act, and the current concern over the XL Bully illustrates once again that a major overhaul of this legislation is needed.

[Lucy Reed @Familoo]

Parents,

Beware advice about Freemen on the land/Common law. It will not help your case. Seriously. Whoever is advising you is exploiting you. Cases like this are increasingly common. They never end well. Get legal advice from an actual lawyer. Please.
https://t.co/KuFDQiEwTT

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

Some still writing things like 'people still splurging amid mortgage crisis' as an argument that things aren't so bad. Yet of course that's happening - we have a split society.

From a consumer perspective the mortgage crisis disproportionately falls on relatively few shoulders.

Roughly 1/3 of the population has mortgage, a third rent, and a third owns their house outright.

Of the third with a mortgage, many are still on long-term fixes. This means the bank of England's deliberate policy to increase the cost of borrowing in order to squeeze disposable incomes, and take money out of the economy, is only really very directly hitting likely under 20% of the population. So their incomes need to be really squeezed in order for it to work.

Of course there's also a squeeze on renters where costs are rocketing, some of it an indirect and painful knock on from the mortgage rate hikes, but also from the other big inflations in energy and food prices.

That's one part of our polarized society. The other includes those who own outright, some of whom will have gained from the £150 billion pounds of extra savings that built up during the pandemic. And while there's some hit there due to energy and other inflation, it will be offset by benefitting from interest rates going up, as savers get more income.

So the idea that the mortgage squeeze means pan society everybody stops spending is nonsense. What we're actually doing is trying to fix the whole economy by making a disproportionate squeeze on a relatively limited number of people.

Of course interest rate rises impact business too. Yet that's not my bag.

[Howards-solicitors @howardssols]

@CrimeLineLaw Empathy is so rare in the courts these days i find

[Howards-solicitors @howardssols]

No loss but more chaos i expect

[Dominic Raab @DominicRaab]

My resignation statement.👇

[Ian Cheeseman @IanCheeseman]

Tonight from 7pm my Theatre & Musicals show “Break-a-Leg” on @tamesideradio 103.6FM @, we hear about @HydeLittle’s Brassed Off, Dawn Leigh talks about the emotional last day of @OldhamColiseum plus @MatthewDuckett talks about the brilliant @Newsies at @troubadourWPark

[Howards-solicitors @howardssols]

IPP Prisoners Refused Get Out of Jail Card | Howards & Henry's Solicitors a frustrating development. https://t.co/YsudpMBud5

[Ben Ashcroft @AshcroftBen]

When I was a child in care I was moved with bin bags. I don't remember ever having a suitcase or rucksack. It sends a negative message to our children being moved with bin liners. It's awful it still happens. Surely it's not hard to get some suitcases or rucksacks. @wearemadlug

[Howards-solicitors @howardssols]

@IanCheeseman @EamarDev_Uk @ManCity @rrg_group @TheOSC8 @EFC_FansForum @ManCityDigital @ChicagoMCFC @HollywoodMCFC @ManCityDelhi We had a great day despite the poor performance, thank you again